In the course of performing diagnostic procedures, for example, gathering optical, thermal, electromagnetic, and/or other physical measurements or characteristics of a body of a subject, to name a few, it may be desirable to maintain a body temperature of the subject above or below a threshold value or within a desired range. Such diagnostic procedures may be used to diagnose, treat, and/or monitor a subject in conjunction with, for example, medical testing, medical treatment, medical research, and/or scientific research, to name a few.
For example, in the field of medical research, several physiological parameters are affected by a subject's body temperature, for example, respiration rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen saturation, to name a few. Further, some substances being researched for use in treating illnesses have been found to have an effectiveness associated with a body temperature of a subject to which they are applied.
As another example, medical scanning equipment such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may produce heat in the body of a subject during use, such that a body temperature of the subject fluctuates across duty cycles of the MRI scanner. Such problems with variable body temperature of a subject may be compounded where the body mass of the subject is relatively small, for example, in rodents such as lab rats or mice used for medical testing, so that the change in the body temperature of the subject can change rapidly and/or between extreme values.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system for regulating a body temperature of a subject during the course of a diagnostic procedure. It would be further desirable to adapt such a system for integration into currently-available diagnostic devices so that a substantial reconfiguration of existing architecture is not required to achieve effective regulation of the body temperature of a subject.